Educational Insights

Speaking of Pictures

To a trained eye, almost every artwork contains clues that reveal a story. An artist may also convey subtle meaning through symbols or composition. Roll over this image to reveal the hidden meaning behind My Children.

Abbott Handerson Thayer, known for his paintings of angels, often used his children as models. Referring to My Children, Thayer wrote of his aim to show "three blissfully exalted children" in a way that "puts beauty to the eye first, and the idea last." One viewer admired the work so much that he said it would become "the greatest picture painted by an American." Use your mouse to roll over the image and find out more!

Thayer often used his children as models. In the 1891 painting, Virgin Enthroned, the artist arranged the same three models in a similar composition. Here, though, his daughter Mary is seated, and his title suggests that she represents the Virgin Mary.

Thayer originally intended to dedicate this painting to author Robert Louis Stevenson, whose writing he admired. A photograph of the work in progress reveals that a plaque, where Stevenson's initials would have been inscribed, was later replaced with a laurel wreath.

Figures in the lower half of the painting look ill-defined—possibly even incomplete. Thayer worked on My Children from 1893 to 1897, and his letters indicate an agonizing process. He wrote to the art collector Charles Lang Freer in March 1896, describing this piece as "half done." In August 1897, Thayer complained, "my picture is at sea again" before finally selling it to Freer.

Thayer incised the words "NEVER TO RECEIVE ONE PIN-POINT OF RETOUCHING" near the bottom of this canvas. His concern is not surprising because conservators during that period often altered paintings.

This Web feature is posted in loving memory of Richard Murray, a scholar of Thayer and a valued Smithsonian American Art Museum colleague.